


Patterns | Lies

by FroldGapp



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Denial of Feelings, F/M, Feelings, Friendship, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Kidge - Freeform, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Young Love, pining pidge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 22:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13327242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FroldGapp/pseuds/FroldGapp
Summary: Sure, they're friends and comrades in arms, but if there's one thing Pidge is certain of it's that she does not like Keith Kogane.But when Keith gets shaken by unexpected news, will she be able to love him like others haven't?





	Patterns | Lies

**Author's Note:**

> Where did this come from? Who knows?
> 
> Written without beta and with mega tired eyes. Bloop!
> 
> British English so ' and not ", etc.

_You can’t read data without a good eye, and from the moment she could sing her ABCs, Katie Holt knew that hers missed nothing. From how her brother would disappear off ‘to the library’ only to come home with a dandelion seed clinging to his jacket’s hem, to the way Iverson’s lips pulled down at the word ‘pilot error’ whenever it was mentioned, patterns and lies were as obvious to “Pidge Gunderson” as the nose on her own face. After all, it’s what made her such a great liar herself._

_She sat in front of her laptop and hummed. The little black cursor line blinked up at her from an empty document named only,_ Read and I’ll Kill You.

 _Pidge considered the field of white; compared it’s purity to the thought-tornado currently hollowing out her skull. She_ would _find Matt. She_ would _find her father. They_ would _defeat Zarkon. She_ would _discover where Lance kept the bag of marshmallows on the castle ship._

_Master liar, Katie Holt. Solver of puzzles, breaker of codes. She lifted her fingers and began typing:_

I do not like Keith Kogane.

OoO

‘Belly button in! Belly button– oof! – _in_ , Pidge!’

Pidge tucked her chin into her neck and growled, ‘If it’s any more _in_ it’s going to burst a kidney!’ With her arms stretched out in front of her, legs shaking behind her, and Keith’s broad feet planted against her stomach, she spoke in a series of breathless huffs. They were in what Keith called “training” but what could more properly be called “exercises in masochism”. ‘What’s the point of this anyway?’

‘Core,’ Keith said, as easily as if he were taking a stroll through an Arusian meadow. He had barely broken a sweat, despite the fact that he had been holding her aloft for a solid fifteen minutes now. In fact, he only seemed to struggle when he had to swing his legs one way or the other to keep Pidge from sliding off the soles of his feet. 'Besides, it's fun isn't it?'

‘You always say core!’ Pidge drew in another breath and pointed her toes until it felt as though her bones would snap. She began to emit a high-pitched squealing so acute that the space mice scampered desperately for the door. The sound only intensified when she wobbled unsteadily.

Laughing, Keith pinched his toes into her middle. ‘You’re over-thinking!’

Pidge gestured to herself, short arms flailing. ‘Look at who you’re talking t–argh!’ She tipped sideways, over-corrected, then tumbled forward, saved from cracking her head off the floor only by Keith’s lightning reflexes. He caught her easily, one hand on each shoulder and shin pressed against her trunk to break the fall. He lowered her down until she lay sprawled on top of him. His chest was solid beneath her cheek. And he was still laughing.

‘Not funny,’ she grumbled, tilting her face up so she was speaking into his neck.

He sighed, lifting a little clump of her hair in the process. ‘A little funny.’ He started laughing again, though, as Pidge’s diary recorded, it was more of a nasally giggle.

‘You have very long legs, okay? It was a big drop,’ she groused.

Gently, Keith rolled Pidge off him and sat up. She let herself sink into the pliant service of the training room floor and watched him tug on his old, grey socks; balding at the heels and savaged by his too-long toes.

‘You’re gross,’ she said, face glued to the floor and utterly unbothered by the slobber running from her mouth and wetting the hair that clung to her skin. 'I'm sorry. It's just a biological fact.'

Keith glanced at her over one shoulder. ‘Oh yeah?’ he asked, whipping her nose with a sock. ‘And, go figure: pigeons _can’t_ fly.’

‘You jerk!’ she squealed, scrambling to her knees to grab at him, but he was too fast. He was on his feet – albeit mono-socked – in a shot.

He slung the spare sock over his shoulder and padded towards the training room door, black jeans riding low on his waist and t-shirt crumpled to an extent that would give Lance a conniption. ‘See you later, Pigeon,’ he said, tossing out a barely-there wave.

‘Later jerk-face.’

OoO

 _There’s a tricky thing about having a good eye. Sometimes_ seeing _isn’t enough._ Sometimes _the detail is so minute, the reader so close to its subject, that the bigger picture is lost entirely._

_She thought she could read Keith– thought she could parse out his patterns and, Lord knows, he was a terrible liar. But she couldn’t read him at all._

OoO

‘What do you think you’ll say when you find Matt?’

They were lying on the floor of the frigid observation deck, high up in the castle ship where the Altean heating system apparently struggled to reach. Their breath appeared in little clouds.

‘I don’t know,’ Pidge said, shrugging. ‘I’ll try to avoid all cliches on account of Hunk’s new camera. I thought we left embarrassing videos behind when we signed up for an intergalactic war.’

Keith, lying on his belly with his chin resting on the fold of his arms, smiled at that. ‘Not much signing-up happened.’

Pidge snickered. ‘Press-ganged by a robotic lion, more like.’

A nod and quiet sigh from behind the curtain of black hair beside her. She nudged him with a toe. ‘What about you? Do you think they’re out there? Your dad or mom?’

Keith froze for a moment but appeared to gather himself in the same breath. He nodded. ‘Maybe,’ he said, quietly. ‘Dad’s gone. I know that much. But mom? Sure...’ Valiantly, he mustered an almost-smile. ‘I’m fighting a 10,000 year old alien emperor with hopes of actually winning, may as well push the envelope a little to "track down long lost alien progenitor."’

'You're grim.'

'I guess.'

An elbow to the ribs. ‘Do you miss him? Your dad?’

He dropped his cheek onto his knuckles to face her. ‘Sure,’ he said. ‘I loved him.’

She nodded. Her fingers searched until they found his. Hooking her forefinger around his pinkie she whispered, ‘I’m sorry about your dad, Keith.’

‘Thanks,’ he said, eyes bright and full of stars.

OoO

_Katie Holt, reader of patterns, should have read that Keith Kogane was due a tragedy._

**Author's Note:**

> Come and play! https://froldgapp.tumblr.com


End file.
